Bible Trivia: The Gospels — printable
Name: ______________________________ Date: ____________ Score: ______
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1. Which Gospel opens with the words “In the beginning was the Word”? Easy
- A John
- B Mark
- C Matthew
- D Luke
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2. Who baptises Jesus in the Jordan? Easy
- A John the Baptist
- B Peter
- C Andrew
- D Zechariah
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3. Which disciple denies Jesus three times before the cock crows? Easy
- A Peter
- B Judas Iscariot
- C Thomas
- D James
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4. Which two Gospels contain an account of Jesus’ birth? Easy
- A Matthew and Luke
- B Mark and John
- C Matthew and Mark
- D Luke and John
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5. Which Gospel is addressed to a man named Theophilus? Medium
- A Luke
- B John
- C Matthew
- D Mark
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6. Which Gospel traces Jesus’ genealogy all the way back to Adam? Medium
- A Luke
- B Matthew
- C Mark
- D John
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7. Which Gospel contains the Sermon on the Mount? Medium
- A Matthew
- B Luke
- C Mark
- D John
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8. Which of the four Gospels is the shortest? Medium
- A Mark
- B John
- C Luke
- D Matthew
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9. Which Gospel places the cleansing of the temple at the start of Jesus’ ministry rather than in the final week? Hard
- A John
- B Mark
- C Luke
- D Matthew
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10. Which Gospel dates Jesus’ birth to a census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria? Hard
- A Luke
- B Matthew
- C Mark
- D John
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11. Which Gospel names Malchus, the high priest’s servant whose ear is cut off at the arrest? Hard
- A John
- B Luke
- C Mark
- D Matthew
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12. At the crucifixion, which Gospel has the centurion call Jesus a righteous man rather than the Son of God? Hard
- A Luke
- B Mark
- C Matthew
- D John
Answer key — teacher’s sheet
Print pages separately: hand out the worksheet, keep this one.
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1. A — John
John 1:1. Mark is the usual wrong answer, because it opens “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ” — a similar first word, a completely different sentence.
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2. A — John the Baptist
Mark 1:9, and the parallels in Matthew 3 and Luke 3. Zechariah is the Baptist’s father in Luke 1, which is where that confusion comes from.
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3. A — Peter
Mark 14:66–72, with the prediction at 14:30. Judas betrays rather than denies; the two acts are distinct in every Gospel that reports both.
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4. A — Matthew and Luke
Matthew 1–2 and Luke 1–2. Mark begins at the Jordan with the adult Jesus, and John begins before creation with the Word — neither has a nativity at all.
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5. A — Luke
Luke 1:3. Acts 1:1 opens by addressing the same man and referring back to a “former book”, which is the textual link between the two.
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6. A — Luke
Luke 3:23–38, which ends “son of Adam, son of God”. Matthew 1:1 also gives a genealogy, but starts it at Abraham and runs forward.
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7. A — Matthew
Matthew 5–7. Luke 6:17–49 has much of the same material delivered on “a level place”, which is why it is usually called the Sermon on the Plain — the same teaching, a different setting.
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8. A — Mark
Mark, at sixteen chapters against Matthew’s twenty-eight, Luke’s twenty-four and John’s twenty-one. John feels short because of its narrow cast of scenes, but it is the longer book.
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9. A — John
John 2:13–22, in the second chapter. Mark 11:15–19 and its parallels put the same action in the last days before the arrest, which is the sharpest chronological disagreement between John and the others.
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10. A — Luke
Luke 2:1–2. Matthew 2:1 instead anchors the birth to the reign of Herod, which is the other half of a dating problem that has occupied historians for a long time.
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11. A — John
John 18:10, which also names Peter as the man with the sword. The other three report the wound but leave both men anonymous.
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12. A — Luke
Luke 23:47. Mark 15:39 and Matthew 27:54 both give “Truly this man was the Son of God”; John reports no centurion’s words at all.